Posted on 11/06/2006 10:43:32 AM PST by Froufrou
Jury selection was to begin Monday for the trial of a man accused of fatally shooting a neighborhood visitor through the chest with a razor-tipped deer hunting arrow.
Thomas Sirico, 35, fired the 3-foot arrow at Juan Carlos Munoz, a 27-year-old father of three boys, during a brief argument in January, Suffolk County prosecutors said.
Before aiming his powerful $1,200 compound bow, Sirico yelled at Munoz from across the street, "Do you want trouble?" witnesses told police.
Munoz, who was visiting friends in Sirico's Mastic neighborhood, pulled out the aluminum arrow, which was sticking through his back, before stumbling around and collapsing into the street, witnesses said. He died at a hospital; an autopsy showed the arrow struck near his heart, cutting off blood flow.
Sirico ran off but was captured later by state police in Westhampton Beach, about 15 miles away, prosecutors said.
Sirico has pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder and has been held without bail. His attorney, Eric Naiburg, said there were "serious questions about whether or not this was intentional."
Sirico's friends said he was a mild-mannered man who loved animals and the outdoors and gave jelly beans to children. They said he was an avid hunter.
A former boss at an auto body shop said Sirico was bitter about losing a leg in a motorcycle accident 12 years ago, but neighbors said he sometimes made light of the loss by taking off his prosthetic limb and showing the stump just below his hip.
Munoz's girlfriend, Delmaris Schelmety, was pregnant with their fourth child when he was killed Jan. 8. She said they had planned to marry over the summer.
Bow and arrow control coming next with registration requirements.
"His attorney, Eric Naiburg, said there were "serious questions about whether or not this was intentional."
Yeah. I just hate the 'hair trigger' on my bow!
Sheese!
Well there, then, now. That's seals it. He just couldn't be a murderer...
This is just sad.
3 Children and one on the way.
wow. life is too damn precious to let whatever bugs you make you that angry.
I don't think the "it just went off" defense is a winner here but then I'm not a lawyer.
He didn't know it was loaded.
Marriage after the fourth. Not the 1st or 2nd or 3rd, but the 4th.
But, but, I thought he had an apple on his head. I missed.
Oh, good, my snort of derision wasn't the only one! No, really, we were planning to get married - so can I have his death benefits? We MEANT to - isn't that good enough? Murder is never okay, but puh-LEEEEZE!
I saw that, too. I bet there was no way he was gonna marry her. She's lining up her RSDA checks from Social Security, is all. The article didn't paint her as being very upset, did it?
It was probably set for 'automatic'.
I laugh like crazy when somebody tries to pull this "the gun just went off, it was an accident" crap, but as an archer, I have a good idea just how much strength, effort, concentration and intent someone has to put into shooting a bow and hitting his target.
This was pure murder.
I tend to agree. I haven't arched since childhood, but I know enough to know it's more difficult than shooting a gun. And the way I understood this, he hit the guy across the street, not in his own yard!
Or, "It just went off while I was cleaning it."
"I just reached up to scratch my nose and forgot my hand was on the arrow and the bowstring was drawn back. Could happen to anybody."
"Marriage after the fourth. Not the 1st or 2nd or 3rd, but the 4th."
Well, I guess a 4th child was a sign it was time to settle down.
Unless the shooter "visualized the flight of the arrow and impact", it wasn't premeditated, just lucky.
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